


an in-between thing

by PilotStudios



Category: One Piece
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Gen, Klabautermann AU, Water 7, a complete disregard for grammar
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-06
Updated: 2018-07-06
Packaged: 2019-05-30 05:11:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15089723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PilotStudios/pseuds/PilotStudios
Summary: most klabautermann manifest out of love, from a well-cared shipbut not himhe manifested out ofspite





	an in-between thing

**Author's Note:**

> this got entirely out of hand and ended up much longer than i anticipated. also this was originally written as a bullet list (cuz i like experimenting with format) but that wouldn't really work here. [so see here for the original. ](https://flimflamfranky.tumblr.com/post/175559774668/please-imagine-klabautermannfranky-mostl)

most klabautermann manifest out of love, from a well-cared ship.

but not him.

he manifested out of _spite_.

the problem these days is no respect. a ship’s a ship, sure, but its whole point is to get you safely from one place to another. and on the ocean, not much else could claim the same. a ship deserved respect for that, at the very least.

the crew of the _cutty flam_ did not respect their ship.

and as the klabautermann of the _cutty flam_ , he would not take it.

it starts small, at first. little nudges. he’s willing to give them a chance. moving tools to broken parts, leaving doors to disused rooms open, pushing (as much as an intangible being could) unaware crew mates towards places that needed fixing.

but all it does is start whispers of the ship being haunted.

(they’re not wrong)

he fixes what he can in the dead of night, with stolen tools and re-purposed materials, but he is small and inexperienced and there’s only so much he can do

and with each failed fix and each ignored warning, he gets angrier and angrier

he starts to torment the crew. strange noises in the dead of night, possessions thrown into the ocean, scratching under the bunks of nervous members, whispering in their ears. _pay attention to me. fix me. do something._

the crew grows tense, anxious. arguments flare up between them, factions being to form. talks of mutiny quietly begin. but the ship still goes ignored. tension builds, his anger builds, and something has to break, someone has to give, and then-

he gets caught

 _it’s a devil fruit_ , he hears the crew whisper. _expensive. dangerous._ he felt it the moment it came aboard. it felt…wrong. a thing rejected by the sea. despite his curiosity, he doesn’t want to look at it. he wants it gone.

and then the captain eats it

she catches him taking her jewels to dump into the sea. he hadn’t heard her come in, didn’t notice her at all until a hand clamped down on his arm.  
he had dropped the jewels, startled. human hands weren’t supposed to lay on him. weren’t supposed to be able to.

her touch burns.

 _you_ , she seethes, eyes hard and angry. _you’re the one_. and for the first time, he feels fear.

he struggles, but he is small and weak, and she lifts him easily. she carries out to the deck, displaying him to the crew. _look_ , she says, smug. _i caught our little ghost_.

and she does something to him. he doesn’t know what. years later, he still doesn’t know. but she cuts him, and he feels suddenly…empty. terribly terribly empty.

and then she throws him overboard.

he falls, tumbling through the air, blue, blue, brown blurring past him again and again, wind whistling in his ears until, with a great splash he hits the ocean

he holds no fear of the sea. he is a part of it and it cannot harm him. it shouldn’t be able to.

he finds himself drowning.

he struggles upward, and breaks the surface with a large gasp, coughing, desperately filling his lungs (lungs he shouldn’t have, lungs he can’t have) with air.

just in time to see his ship disappear over the horizon.

and floating there, the ocean lapping gently against him, he realizes he didn’t feel it go.

he swims to shore. what else is he to do?

the ground (not earth, but metal) feels weird beneath his feet. his whole body feels weird - heavy, shaky. disconnected. His ship is gone from view and he cannot feel it. Just emptiness.

klabautermann aren’t supposed to be separated from their ships. what does that make him?

he doesn’t know.

he builds. it comes naturally to him, as it always does. he gathers scraps and melds them together, building them into weapons. he channels his rage, his panic, his fear, into a thing that can hurt, because it’s the only thing he can do.

and once he’s done, he shoots after the ship (not his ship, not anymore).

it doesn’t help.

and then the fishman appears, large, rotund, and _blue._ he’s never met one, but he’s heard tales of terrifying monsters, unnaturally strong and full of hate.

but this fish man is a shipwright. he can tell, he always can.

and he can trust ship wrights.

(besides, nothing full of hate could build a ship. the stories must be wrong.)

so, he goes to the fish man and demands that he take him in. that makes the fishman laugh, breathless, wheezy laughs, but he knows he’ll do it.

and as the fish man takes him off the island, walking him through the strange streets (the city is strange and unnerving. he’s never been in one before. he thinks he prefers the metal island), he introduces himself as tom.

tom takes him to a worn, water-logged place under a bridge, and introduces him to a smiling woman with too many teeth and a scowling serious boy.

the woman is nice enough and gives him food (he’s never eaten before, but he supposes he has to now) but he clashes with the other boy.

they fight and argue (sometimes with words, sometimes with fists, they’re just too different not to) but at the end of the day, iceburg is still a shipwright. he respects ships.

and that’s miles ahead of where he’s been

 _cutty flam is a weird name_ , iceburg tells him in those first few days (he has to agree - it wasn’t a name meant for humans) and decided to call him franky. it hurt, to let go of that name, but he did anyway. after all, the cutty flam wasn’t his ship anymore. he had no claim to that name.

he wasn’t much of anything anymore.

but he could be. he could be an apprentice, a brother, a son. a shipwright, even, someday.

(and he could build his own ship)

(one that no one would take away)

(a ship that could once again be his)

(but that’s a secret ambition he keeps squirreled away, for him and him alone to know. it would be too much of a hassle to share).

the years pass. he learns. he builds. he takes to ship building like a seabull to water ( _has a natural talent for it_ , tom says. franky doesn’t tell him why). and he starts to build his own ships. they’re small, rickety things, at first-

(his first voyage out goes poorly. he’s never encountered a sea king before, but as one crests the waves beside his boat and rise, towering into the air, he realizes just how _small_ he is. and it’s as he’s swimming frantically back to shore that he decides to build a ship strong enough to take one down)

(iceburg questions him about it, when he tells them all at dinner, asking _why would you decide to do something so stupid?_ franky just repeats himself, louder. as iceburg pinches his checks and scolds him, tom just laughs. _whatever you plan to do, just plan to do it with a don!_ he says, and that’s enough for franky).

(franky doesn’t really have an answer to the question anyway. he’s never been one for introspection, but a ship that could beat a sea king? that’s a ship that lasts.

(that’s a ship that survives).

his ships gradually get bigger, sturdier, grander. he and iceburg fight, but tom is patient to both of them, kind and gentle. and slowly, franky settles.

then the pirate king is killed, and tom is taken as a criminal and franky is angrier than he’s ever been. building a ship is not a crime, it could _never_ be a crime, no matter what the ship was used for.

it wasn’t like it was the ship’s decision.

tom is released upon a promise, the sea train a bright beacon of hope for everyone, but it still hurts.

but tom is, at least, alive.

and the sea train is a magnificent thing. it looks sleek and fast on the blueprints he and iceburg pour over. it’s a true work of art. but more important is the look on mr. tom’s face as he describes it to them. the excitement. the passion. the love.

if any ship deserves a klabautermann, it would be this one, and franky is glad he could help build it.

time passes, and the sea train gets slowly built, growing bit by bit, day by day. franky grows too. he’s not human, not fully anyway, but he wants to be. better than being some in-between thing. so, he chases after iceburg, stretching his body, going from kid, to teen, to adult.

(he never quite gets used to how _frail_ his new body is, no long intangible and immune. but he adjusts as best he can)

(doesn’t stop him from making truly terrible decisions)

but things are good. he’s happy. the future stretches before him, bright for him, for mr. tom, for the whole of water 7.

the sea train gets built. the tracks get laid, the islands connecting one by one. he builds his own ships, strong, durable things, capable of bringing down sea kings.

(he hasn’t connected to any of them yet, not in the way he wants to, but there’s no rush anymore).

(he’s got time).

and then spanda shows up, demanding blueprints to ship that shouldn’t exist, blueprints that tom shows them, secretly and seriously, far more serious than franky’s ever seen him, and he tells them about a girl capable of destroying the world. and tom’s trial looms, a beast twelve years in the waiting. it’ll be fine, he tells himself, lingering around the judical ship.

everything will be fine.

and then the judicial ship is attacked.

it burns and creaks, crushing underneath its own wreckage, sinking into the sea. he can almost hear it _scream_ underneath the panicked screams.  
people rush past him, struggling for safety, shouting for children, for brothers, screaming from loss and pain and-

he’s stunned.

_his ships were capable of that…?_

and then-

_who’s using my ships!?_

the judicial ship burns. and he runs.

but it’s too late. iceburg and tom lay on the metal island, wounded, blood pooling out onto the abandoned scrap.

_his ships. his ships did this._

and when iceburg punches him and yells those words _(i am never going to forgive you franky!_ ), franky agrees with him.

all three of them are taken, despite his shouts, and placed, bound, before the judge, at his makeshift table.

spanda stands before them, smug, arrogant, accusing.

_those rogue ships were built by your company, were they not?_

it is the one thing franky cannot contest. and that hurts more than any of spanda’s lies.

_i didn’t build them for that…_

those ships. they can’t be his.

_after what they did…_

they can’t be him.

_they’re not my ships anymore!_

tom breaks his bonds and hits him. his jaw snaps shut, teeth nearly cracking from the force, but the surprise of it gets him more than else.

tom towers over him. _no matter who gets injured by the ships you build, the one who created them must love them at least_ , he says, face firm, serious. _do not blame the ships. it’s not their fault_.

there is something in tom’s eyes, and in the way he says it, and he realizes that tom _knows_. he’s always know. of course he has.

he’s a shipwright after all.

tom takes the fall. the attack on the judicial ship is pardoned and tom proudly goes for building the ship of the pirate king.

but franky can’t let him go quietly, despite what kokoro tells him.

he takes his strongest weapons, and his fastest ship, and he scrambles onto the floating tracks.

the sea trains puffs in the distance, deceptively slow, but gaining speed as it rushes towards him.

he can’t let mr tom go.

(and he can’t let mr tom’s greatest accomplishment take its creator to his death).

but he is merely an in-between thing, a sea spirit turned human, and he is no match for the might of the sea train.

his broken body, too human in all the wrong ways, floats out to sea.

a fitting final place for him, really.

but he’s not ready to die just yet.

and, as a towering ship floats up, blocking out the sun, it seems the ocean isn’t ready for him to die either.

it’s a scrapper ship, full of scrap iron and waste wood. there’s no crew in sight. an abandoned ship, no longer a ship but not yet a wreck.

an in-between thing. just like him.

and on that in-between ship, he rebuilds himself. it’s a slow, arduous process. his body is more malleable than most, but it has its limits. and it still hurts. but he pushes through, determined, desperate. it takes years to get it functional, and a few more years to get it right. eventually, four years pass, and he’s got a brand new cyborg body.

he’s far more metal than human now, but that doesn’t bother him. he was never much human to begin with.

he returns to water 7. Mr. tom wanted to see the city flourish, and he owes it to mr. tom to see that through to the end.

(and he owes it to the city too. despite everything, it’s still his home.)

he meets iceburg (mayor iceburg now, ain’t that something) in the warehouse under the bridge. they fight, but franky’s glad to see him. and despite it all, despite how much franky doesn’t deserve it, iceburg’s glad to see him too.

iceburg gives him the blueprints (despite everything iceburg still trusts him too) and tells him to leave. but franky’s guilt is too much for that.

so, he takes the blueprints and he stays.

he might not be able to do as much good as mr. mayor for the city, but he does what he can. he’s always been too rough for the legal stuff anyway.

he prowls the streets of water 7′s underground and picks up anyone in need of picking up. he gives them food, he gives them a place to crash, he gives them a good time. and, most important, he gives them jobs.

dismantlers. bounty hunters.

unofficially guardians of water 7.

it’s the best he can do, and he’ll make sure that they’re the best at what they do

( _ships, build ships_ , his traitorous mind still whispers to him occasionally. and if he’s not careful, he’ll find himself walking by the docks, watching the shipwrights work. but it’s never something he allows for too long.

that ship has sailed. he’s built his last weapon, and it’s the one thing no one can take away.)

and the city flourishes.

(he doesn’t want to build ships anyway).

and then the kid with the straw hat shows up

franky doesn’t meet him first though. no, he first meets the scrawny kid who tries too hard but can’t get it right, desperately fighting against a force far too big.

it’s familiar, the way the kid screams for his money back, battered and bruised, but franky brushes it off. he has no time to linger over the past.

(besides, the kid’s a pirate. and he knows pirates. pirates don’t care.)

he takes the money and leaves.

( _build ships_ , the buried part of him says. he won’t, he won’t let himself but. the adam wood is in his grasp now.

 _it can be used for things other than ships_ , he tells himself, as the sea trains carries him across the sea. _better to have it than not_.)

he comes back to chaos.

iceburg’s been shot. nico robin has come crawling out of the dark like some boogieman come to haunt him. his family, thrashed by the kid’s bratty crew.

he can do something about that at least

( _cutty flam of tom’s workers is dead_ , iceburg told him, years ago. _there’s nothing connecting us. that will protect these blueprints._

(he can’t do anything without giving himself away.

(and tom gave his life for those blueprints. he can’t endanger them.)

he fights the straw hat kid. he trashes dock one and reveals in the destruction he causes. but the straw hat leaves his fight unfinished.

he finds the other kid, the one they’d taken the money from, and their ship, alone and abandoned. he takes them. maybe it’ll draw the straw hat out.

but pulling the ship into the warehouse gives him pause. it’s worn, and battered, and broken but. it’s loved. it’s very loved.

huh.

the kid, usopp, turns out to be alright. he waves the beating, and so franky waves his anger (as best he can). it’s not as hard as he thought it would be.

usopp loves his ship.

franky can see it on his face when he looks at it, the way he grabs his hammer, the way he talks about it, proud and full of joy.

he hasn’t met many kids like usopp. hell, he hasn’t met many pirates like usopp.

but the ship’s not a ship anymore. usopp wants to go home, all the way to east blue, but the ship can’t get him there.

usopp refuses to accept this. he loves his ship too much.

and that…is a type of idiocy that franky can respect. but he can’t let usopp suffer a death at sea.

(drowning is a scary thing)

and he can’t let that ship be responsible. it would be far to tragic.

and then the government arrives.

there’s four of them. people he recognizes. people he _knows_. relentless monsters disguised under friendly faces, now revealing their true colors of the government flag.

they beat him around, they rattle out his history, laying his mistakes bare, deeming him a criminal. franky seethes. they know nothing.

but they still win. he’s still too weak. and they take him, and usopp, and they dump the ship.

and for the first time, tied up in a car of the sea train, just like mr. tom had been, he thinks that maybe he can’t win. everyone’s always said that the government was an unstoppable force that always got what it wanted. maybe they were right.

and then that crazy straw hat and his crazy crew crash the party.

he learns that they’re after one thing and one thing only.

nico robin.

the cook tears through the cars, through the government goons, kick them down one by one with violent passion. the others follow close behind, chasing the sea train and risking their lives on the unstable rocket man. even usopp, for all that he denounced them earlier, still fights with everything he’s got.

all for nico robin.

because she’s part of their crew.

and for them, it’s as simple as that.

and even though they fail, and he and nico robin are carted off, he thinks that maybe this is winnable after all.

and nico robin. she’s a strange one. giving herself up to the government she’s spent 20 years running from, all for the sake of that crew?

well, it makes sense that the government was wrong about her too.

 _no matter what weapon you’ve got, just being isn’t a crime_.

(don’t blame the ships. it’s not their fault).

**_existing is not a crime._ **

(it’s not your fault).

they fight. he fights, usopp fights, the whole crew fights, following behind the destructive force that is straw hat luffy.

even nico robin, crying her eyes out and screaming that she wants to live, fights.

and seeing them save that women from the brink, with just their strength and conviction behind them, he decides to bet on them.

he burns the blueprints.

_good luck getting them now, fuckers._

they fight.

and they _win._

luffy pummels that asshole with the pigeon into the ground and _they win_.

and after franky thinks he’s seen it all-

the going merry comes and saves them.

_let’s go everyone! let’s set out to sea one last time!_

iceburg says that it’s the most incredible ship he’s ever seen. and franky has to agree.

 _i’ll build them a new ship_ , he promises her, as the ship burns, and the crew say their final farewell. _one you can be proud of. one that will get them there. i promise._

and as the ship sink into the sea, a little hand touches his own. it’s a familiar touch, of a life he left a long time ago, of ships and the sea. it’s a life he’s sorely missed.

_i’ll build it for you._

_(and me.)_

the adam wood comes in. he finishes the blueprints. and he pledges to make the greatest ship for the straw hat pirates.

(after the party, of course).

he builds the ship on scrap island. it’s the only place that feels right. iceburg comes to help him, and so does the rest of the dock one shipwrights. and for a moment, it feels just like things did, all those years ago.

_you better not get in my way!_

(he’s not crying, he’s not).

(but he’ll admit he feels happier than he has in years).

and that ship…

it’s his dream ship.

a large brigantine, small enough for a small crew, but large enough to weather the worst the ocean can throw. he built rooms for everyone, designed by their specifications, made to accommodate them all. and he’s painted the whole thing in reds and yellows (the only colors of the captain you could see when he threw himself into a fight).

and at the prow, in the same style as the going merry, was a lion

(he remembered a story, as he drew up the last of his blueprints, that kokoro used to tell him, as he adjusted to having to sleep. a story about a lion protecting a lamb. it seemed fitting. 

and besides, the king of pirates deserves nothing less than the king of the beasts).

and as proud as he is of his ship, and how badly he wants to see their faces when he gives it to them, he can’t.

despite only knowing the boy for a few days, he had an understanding of straw hat luffy.

he knows what the kid would ask of him.

and if he did, franky knows what his answer would be.

(luffy was like the ocean. a force of nature, gentle and dangerous in equal measures.

and franky was always weak to the pull of the sea).

he cannot go.

but he should have expected that luffy wouldn’t take that. and maybe he should have expected that his family wouldn’t either.

but still, taking his speedo was a low blow.

(not that he really cares. humans had such weird hang-ups about nudity).

but despite his convictions, hearing how much luffy and the others love his ship made him heart swell.

he’s fighting a losing battle, he realizes, landing the wreckage of scrap island, slightly dazed from the flight (firing him from a cannon? really? those punks were just asking for trouble).

but he’s never been one to go quietly.

 _no_ , he says, when luffy first asks. _no_ , he says through the pain (robin was as ruthless as they said. too bad they didn’t get anything else right). _no_ , he says to his pleading family.

and maybe he could’ve outlast them and lived the rest of his days wracked with guilt and regret like he deserved, if iceburg hadn’t said those words to him.

_this ship isn’t your dream ship yet._

(his secret dream. he only spoken it once, to himself, when he thought everyone had been asleep. a ship strong enough to sail the seas. a ship with a caring crew. a ship that i can be a part of again. that will be my dream ship).

_it doesn’t have you on it._

**_you have to forgive yourself, franky!_ **

and that does him in. and when luffy asks again, he can’t say no.

he’s not a klabautermann. hasn’t been for a long time. and he’s made peace with that. he’s grown from that in-between thing and become his own thing (cyborg, mob boss, shipwright, brother, son). the ship isn’t his, not in the way he once wanted. but that’s alright. because the ship is theirs. the straw hat pirates. this ship deserves no less.

and he’ll be out there again, on a pirate ship, with a pirate crew, and he already knows it’ll be so much better than the last time.

these pirates respect this ship. and they like it too, like they do each other. it’s not just a vessel, it’s a member.

and they like him too.

they’re a crazy bunch. crazy strong too. he can already imagine all the trouble they’ll get up too.

a fitting place for him, really.

_fine! i’ll take care of it!_

_your shipwright’s gonna be me, franky!_


End file.
